Cigarette wrapper construction

Abstract

A cigarette paper wrapper construction to greatly minimize the amount of paper burned, thus the amount of irritating smoke which results from the burning of the paper. A plurality of spots of varying designs, uniformly distributed on the paper, are provided, which spots are non-combustible. The spots may be coated both outwardly and inwardly with non-combustible material, such as aluminum foil, or perhaps the spots may be made non-combustible by coating or impregnating the spots with non-combustible material.

Description

This invention relates to cigarettes and, more particularly, to a cigarette paper wrapper construction.

After considerable research, I have found that perhaps the most irritating effect, or, at least, one of the most irritating effects from smoking cigarettes is caused by the products of combustion of the cigarette paper or wrapper.

In the past, considerable attention has been given to filters to absorb nicotine in small amounts, with no attention being given to one of the most irritating sources, namely, the paper itself. Cigarette wrappers have been provided with a layer of non-combustible material merely for purpose of supporting and preventing dropping of the ashes which might cause a fire. However, even in these instances, the paper portion which is covered by such material would nevertheless burn and cause irritation to the lungs of the smoker.

An object of my invention is to provide a novel cigarette paper or wrapper construction which is devoid of the above-named disadvantages of conventional cigarette wrappers and which will practically eliminate the irritation to the lungs caused by burning of the cigarette paper or wrapper.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette including a wrapper embodying the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG. 1; and,

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are enlarged, cross-sectional views, similar to FIG. 2, but showing different modifications thereof.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotes a cigarette paper wrapper provided with a plurality of non-combustible spots 2, in accordance with the present invention, enclosing tobacco 3. While the spots are shown as being circular or oval shaped, they could be rectangular, diamond or of any other shape, the only requirement being that a sufficient number of such spots are substantially uniformly distributed throughout the cigarette paper or wrapper and that somewhat annular paths of paper will be provided throughout the length of the cigarette to permit burning of the paper.

FIG. 2 shows one form of making the spots 2 incombustible namely, by applying both an outer layer 2a and an identically sized, confronting inner layer 2b, of incombustible material, so as to completely encase the spots 2 and make the paper within the spots non-combustible.

Layers 2a and 2b may be made of any non-combustible material, such as metal foils of any kind, for example, aluminum foil, or perhaps of non-metallic coatings of non-combustible material applied as foil layers or painted or sprayed on.

FIG. 3 shows that spots 2 could be made non-combustible by providing material extending throughout the thickness of the cigarette paper or wrapper merely by impregnating the paper spots 2 with non-combustible material that is absorbed throughout the entire thickness of the paper or wrapper.

FIG. 4 shows holes 4 formed in the paper, which holes are enclosed by outer and inner layers 5 of incombustible material, such as metallic foil, of slightly larger size than the holes.

FIG. 5 shows a view similar to FIG. 4 except only one covering layer 5 is provided instead of two.

As a modification, the spots 2 can be made of very small dots very close together to provide even more uniformity. The paramount requirement is that there remain always a substantially continuous ring of burnable paper at all times during smoking of the cigarette. In other words, wide circular lateral bands of incombustible material would probably not work since they would interrupt the progressive paper burning process accompanying smoking of the cigarette.

In operation, when the smoker inhales smoke from a burning tip of the cigarette, the wrapper 1 is still a continuous cylinder and will provide a chimney effect for inhaling smoke. However, the paper will burn only the the portions that are not in spots 2, therefore the amount of irritating smoke which results from burning of paper is reduced at least by 50 percent, or even more, depending upon the total area of the incombustible spots 2 as compared to the total cigarette paper or wrapper area.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a highly efficient cigarette paper construction which greatly minimizes the irritating and harmful effect normally resultant from burning of a cigarette paper wrapper, by providing a plurality of uniformly dispersed, non-combustible spots in the wrapper itself to allow progressive burning of the unspotted paper and yet allowing combustion of perhaps one-half or less of the entire area of the cigarette wrapper.

While I have illustrated and described several embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that these are by way of illustration only and that various changes and modifications may be contemplated in my invention and within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A cigarette having a combustible paper wrapper and a plurality of substantially uniformly distributed, separate, non-combustible spots throughout said paper wrapper, said spots formed by outer and inner thin layers of non-combustible aluminum foil opposite each other on said wrapper, to prevent burning of the paper wrapper material in said spots so as to prevent inhalation of the products of combustion of said paper wrapper material otherwise generated in said spots.

2. A cigarette as recited in claim 1 wherein said spots are round.